Game is always changing for the referees as well

Published: Thursday, September 19, 2013 at 09:04 PM.

“Before every game we (officiating crew) talks about things. If we think some of the hits are malicious, then we’ll deal with it.

“Like anything else, if you see things with the players starting to get tense out there, you try to calm it down. I’ve worked with some officials who are really good at doing that.

“If that doesn’t work, then we’ll use the yellow flag.”

Changing times

“One thing that is different is the two guys on the outsides (sidelines), used to have to be within so many yards of the ball. Now those two officials are completely off on the broad stripe on the sideline.

“It makes a difference because, when you retrieve and spot the ball, those guys are further away. Just getting the football relayed in from the sideline is different now. Sometimes, the umpire (who is behind the defense like a linebacker), has to cover a lot of ground just to go retrieve the football so it can be spotted.

Veteran football official Dusty Haynes from Shelby has regularly provided his thoughts on that profession to readers of The Star in recent years.

There are some new challenges for the striped shirts at 2013 high school contests. He touched on several:

Helmet-to-helmet contact

“It’s really a hard thing to see. You’ve got a running back going full speed and he lowers his head and a tackler coming in with his head down. Now you have penalties and you could have ejections connected to that.

“It’s sort of like the old spearing rule we had (in the ‘70s). Common sense is a lot of it.

“The good thing is most of the players know what they shouldn’t do. If you really think someone is trying to hurt someone, that’s different and that’s what Chapel Hill (NCHSAA) is wanting us to get out of the game.

“The way I look at it – if you think you see it, they probably did it and you need to throw the flag. If you didn’t see it, don’t.”

Dealing with issues that pop up

“Before every game we (officiating crew) talks about things. If we think some of the hits are malicious, then we’ll deal with it.

“Like anything else, if you see things with the players starting to get tense out there, you try to calm it down. I’ve worked with some officials who are really good at doing that.

“If that doesn’t work, then we’ll use the yellow flag.”

Changing times

“One thing that is different is the two guys on the outsides (sidelines), used to have to be within so many yards of the ball. Now those two officials are completely off on the broad stripe on the sideline.

“It makes a difference because, when you retrieve and spot the ball, those guys are further away. Just getting the football relayed in from the sideline is different now. Sometimes, the umpire (who is behind the defense like a linebacker), has to cover a lot of ground just to go retrieve the football so it can be spotted.

“With teams running these hurry-up, no-huddle offenses it matters how fast you can get the football spotted. What we’ve heard is they don’t want the officials dictating the pace of the game.

“So because of that, you have to cover more ground sometimes to keep things moving because in these style offenses they want to get up there and snap the ball. That can be tough because these kids are 18 and we’re always another year older.”

Is it still fun to be out there?

“There’s still nothing I’d rather be doing on a Friday night. It’s amazing what you see. The players are bigger and faster. You’ve got all these signals and codes that are coming in from the sidelines now. The kids are well-drilled to be where they’re supposed to be.”